American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
History
American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
Big game hunting -- United States
Mr. O.C. Graetz, now, or recently, of Kipp, Montana, advised me, through
my friend, J.B. Monroe, that in 1894, in the Big Horn Mountains, Wyo.,
on the head of the Little Horn River, in the rough and rolling country
he saw a band of eleven sheep. The same man tells me that also in 1894,
in Sweetwater county, in Wyoming, near the Sweetwater River, south of
South Pass, on a mountain known as Oregon Butte, he twice saw two
sheep. The country was rolling and high, with scattering timber, but not
much of it. In this country, and at that time, the sheep were not much
hunted.
Mr. Elwood Hofer, one of the best known guides of the West, whose home
is in Gardiner, Park county, Mont., has very kindly furnished me with
information about the sheep on the borders of the Yellowstone National
Park. Writing in May, 1898, he says: "At this time sheep are not
numerous anywhere in this country, compared with what they were before
the railroad (Northern Pacific Railroad) was built in 1881. In summer
they are found in small bands all through the mountains, in and about
the National Park. I found them all along the divide, and out on the
spurs, between the Yellowstone and Stinking Water rivers, and on down
between the Yellowstone and Snake rivers, on one side, and the south
fork of Stinking Water River and the Wind River on the east. I found
sheep at the extreme headwaters of the Yellowstone, and of the Wind
River, and the Buffalo Fork of Snake River. There are sheep in the
Tetons, Gallatin-Madison range, and even on Mount Holmes. I have seen
them around Electric Peak, and so on north, along the west side of the
Yellowstone as far as the Bozeman Pass; but not lately, for I have not
been in those mountains for a number of years. All along the range from
the north side of the Park to within sight of Livingston there are a few
sheep.
"On the Stinking Water, where I used to see bands of fifteen to twenty
sheep, now we only see from three to five. Of late years I have seen
very few large rams, and those only in the Park. Last summer
Mr. Archibald Rogers saw a large ram at the headwaters of Eagle Creek,
very close to the Park. In winter there are usually a few large rams in
the Gardiner Canyon. I hear that there are a few sheep out toward
Bozeman, on Mt. Blackmore, and the mountains near there.
"I believe that some of the reasons for the scarcity of mountain sheep
in this country are these: First, the settlement of the plains country
close to the mountains, prevents their going to their winter ranges, and
so starves them; secondly, the same cause keeps them in the mountains,
where the mountain lions can get at them; and thirdly, the scab has
killed a good many. I do not think that the rifle has had much to do
with destroying the sheep."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account